Corporate Volunteering & Giving in Switzerland Apractices snapshot of trends and 2019
Preface We’re happy to share the key findings from the first Swiss survey on corporate volunteering and giving, which offers a snapshot of practices across companies in Switzerland. Today, employees are conscious of society’s challenges and expect companies to play their part and enable their people to drive change. Around the world, people, society, governments and businesses are growing conscious of the impact that our actions are having on the planet and its inhabitants, and are rallying for change. Companies and brands have the opportunity to send a clear message that they are a force for good, beyond profit. We undertook this survey to uncover the current situation in the market and – for the first time ever – offer a picture of corporate volunteering and giving in Switzerland. The coming decades are pivotal. Companies are in a unique position and have immense potential to engage their employees for good. Society expects it, and employees are asking for it. With the deadline for the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals approaching, now is the time for companies of all sizes and industries to step up and show that they are part of the solution. In this report, you can view the key findings, including: 1. While 81% of companies have some sort of volunteering or giving initiatives for their employees, just 23% of them have a structured program, which tracks the impact for their communities and their employees. 2. 95% of companies plan to increase their budget, or at least maintain the same budget, for volunteering and giving activities in the next three years. But 73% of them want more support managing their activities. 3. Employee volunteer participation rates are typically 15%, and as programs mature over time, participation rates have increased. Nonetheless, 70% of companies would like to increase participation rates in the coming years. We hope that you find the report insightful and helpful, whether you’re looking to implement such initiatives in your organisation or want to benchmark your current activities. A big thank you to all who participated in the survey. We welcome the opportunity to shape future reports with your feedback, to address your needs. Our aspiration is that this becomes a useful market reference for all across Switzerland. Thank you and happy reading!
André Abreu
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Contents Key findings
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Key finding 1: It’s about structure
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Key finding 2: A need for support
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Key finding 3: Maximizing participation
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Additional insights
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Appendix I: Glossary
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Appendix II: Methodology
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About Alaya
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Key findings
1 2 3
81% of companies in Switzerland have some sort of volunteering or giving initiatives for their employees, but only 23% of these have a structured program which tracks the impact for their communities and their employees.
95% of companies plan to increase their budget, or at least maintain the same budget, for volunteering and giving activities in the next three years. But 73% of them want more support managing their activities, such as assistance in organising events, sourcing non-profits, designing the program, and scaling it with a digital platform.
Employee participation rates are typically 15%, and as programs have matured over time, participation rates have increased. Nonetheless, 70% of companies would like to increase participation rates in the coming years.
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81% of companies in Switzerland have some sort of volunteering or giving initiatives for their employees, but only 23% of these have a structured program which tracks the impact for their communities and their employees.
When speaking about a structured program, this means that companies make the deliberate effort to put in place a supportive company policy to guide employees’ involvement, and track the impact of their actions through a digital platform. Among companies with volunteering and giving activities, almost two-thirds (66%) have a company policy in place. Over half (55%) of these companies offer one day* of volunteer time-off per year and 43% of them offer more than one day. A structured approach can have multiple benefits. Tracking the number of employee volunteer hours, for example, can help companies assess the level of employee involvement and adjust their program accordingly, and ultimately, tie it to business outcomes. Company policy
Digital platform
39%
34%
66%
No
Yes
61%
No
Yes
Implications for companies When designing a program, consider how you will manage it in your organisation: What policies or guidelines will you put in place to support participation? Who needs to be involved across the company? How will you measure your actions at an individual and company level? How will you ensure that employees across all sites can get involved? *One day is generally defined as eight hours.
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95% of companies plan to increase their budget, or at least maintain the same budget, for volunteering and giving activities in the next three years. But 73% of them want more support managing their volunteering and giving initiatives.
Companies are dedicating more resources to their volunteering and giving activities. Momentum in the external environment is driving this, with growing societal expectations on companies to act for the benefit of the world.
TThe top factors to increase participation varies across company sizes. Large companies need most help to source non- profits and projects to contribute to, whereas small- and medium-sized companies primarily need help to organise volunteering events.
Looking at the trend over the last three years, 29% of companies have already increased their budgets, while 65% have remained stable. In the next three years, 95% of companies foresee their budgets increasing or remaining the same which indicates a growing pool of resources for such activities.
Overall, companies seeking to increase participation rates in their activities need support across the full spectrum of corporate volunteering. This ranges from program design to centralising all activities.
Top factors to increase participation
Budget forecast for next three years 58%
Remaining the same
Increasing
Centralising our activities together together through one tool or platform Support on designing a program of activities & implementing it
37%
10% 18%
Sourcing more nonprofits/projects to contribute to
5%
Decreasing
0%
20%
Support with organizing volunteering events
40%
60%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
22% 23% 25%
Implications for companies As budgets increase, think carefully about their allocation to maximise impact: How can you optimise resources, ensuring that your employees have sufficient opportunities to participate in? How can you make it easy for them to get involved? How can you facilitate tracking participation and your contributions?
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Employee participation rates are typically 15%, and as programs have matured over time, participation rates have increased. Nonetheless, 70% of companies would like to increase participation rates in the coming years.
Across Swiss-based companies, the median participation rate is 15%. Across Europe, the average participation rate amounts to less than 10% of total employees*, while in global, US-based companies, the average participation rate is 33%.** This is due to program maturity and cultural factors, as employee volunteering is relatively new in the European market vs. the US.
Median participation rate across company size 30% Small
25% Medium
13%
Large
Looking at the size of companies, we observe significant variation. Smaller companies tend to have, proportionally, higher participation rates. This is likely due to the complexity involved in sourcing and finding new, local nonprofits and projects to contribute to for larger companies. People are usually distributed across multiple sites nationally or even internationally, making centralized efforts more challenging to coordinate and measure.
30% 0%
10%
40%
20%
Note: Small: up to 100 employees; Medium: Between 101-1000 employees; Large: More than 1000 employees
Companies that want to increase participation rate
11% 70%
Yes No
Implications for companies Participation rates are often viewed as the golden goal for such programs. If you’re a small-sized company, how can you maximise participation rates while offering variety? If you’re a medium- or large-sized company, how can you coordinate and facilitate impactful actions across all your people, regardless of where they’re based?
*Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP) collected data from 250 multi-billion-dollar companies with aggregate revenues of $7.9 trillion via an online survey covering all major industries in the corporate sector. Ninety percent of companies that participated in the 2019 survey are headquartered in the U.S. See full study here. ** European Commission, Europe Volunteer Centre, & Fondacion CODESPA (2013) . See full study here.
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Additional insights Certain trends stood out from the findings which can help to shape the design and implementation of corporate volunteering and giving programs. Specifically, as they relate to the company policy, the reasons for implementing such activities, and the way activities are planned throughout the year.
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Among companies that offer volunteer time off, 98% offer at least 1 day* to their people per year.
Concentration of field volunteering activities
Number of days offered for volunteering % of companies
69% of companies spread their field volunteering activities throughout the year.
55%
60% 50% 40% 30%
18%
20% 10%
Concentrated in 1 day/week/month
31% 2%
4%
2%
6%
4%
8%
69%
0%
Spread out across the year
No. of days
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The top three reasons for offering volunteering and giving opportunities: Increase positive impact in the community; Boost external reputation; Improve internal culture. Avg. rating Increasing the positive impact of your company in the community
Your company's external reputation Your internal company culture Attracting and retaining talent
*One day is generally defined as eight hours.
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Appendix I: Glossary Corporate volunteering & giving Also referred to as employee or workplace volunteering and giving, this encompasses company-supported activities where employees volunteer with charitable organisations to serve society and their local community. This includes volunteering their time or donating money or goods. Digital platform Software that centralizes all volunteering and giving activities on one tool, including a database of opportunities, event management, and reporting tools for tracking. Company policy Refers to a central company-wide policy, generally set out by a company’s human resources or corporate social responsibility function, to offer employees a set amount of time to volunteer during work hours. This can also be called “volunteer time off”.
2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) Also referred to as the 2030 Global Goals, the UN SDGs form part of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015. The 17 SDGs are an urgent call for action by all countries to address today’s key societal and environmental challenges, including poverty, inequalities, and climate change. Participation rate (%) The proportion of employees who have participated in at least one volunteering and/or giving activity in a given time period (e.g. in 2018) out of the total number of employees.
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AppendixII: Methodology The 2019 corporate volunteering and giving survey looks at the current practices across companies in Switzerland, as well as opinions from decision-makers and program managers, on their volunteering and giving activities, policies, and trends. The survey was sent to decision-makers who are usually in charge of volunteering and giving activities in companies. They were asked to complete the survey about their activities for the past year. The data was collected over two months between July and September 2019. The sample of respondents are made up of companies from across Switzerland (n=114), representing a variety of industries and sizes. Company size Role of respondents by no. of employees 25% 44% 11% 10%
49%
3%
Communications,
PR,
26%
30%
2%
Marketing
CSR, Sustainability, Foundation
Human Resources
Legal
Finance
Other
Distribution of respondents across Switzerland
Large
Medium
Small
Note: Small: up to 100 employees; Medium: Between 1011000 employees; Large: More than 1000 employees
Top industries represented
11% 25%
61%
37% 2%
11%
18%
12% 7%
Banking, Finance & Insurance Healthcare & Life Sciences Services Others
16%
Fast Moving Consumer Goods Technology & Software Construction & manufacturing
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About Alaya Alaya is the platform empowers companies to build a purpose-driven culture and engage employees to make an impact, one act at a time. We enable experiences that bring out the human side of work, so that companies and their employees can do good and measure their actions every day. By volunteering, giving, or taking simple actions such as biking to work, saving energy, or committing to a healthier lifestyle, your employees are able to participate in your organisation’s efforts to activate your purpose.
Have questions? We’re here to help. www.alayagood.com GET A DEMO
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